Blatantly untrue, at least in the movie. The decision was between Moria and the Gap of Rohan, the problem with the Gap being that it took them "too close to Isengard". But seeing as they eventually fought the Uruk-Hai anyways, without Gandalf, that ended up being of little concern.

But yes, I imagine if Gandalf had mentioned the armies of goblins and the giant fire demon then Frodo might have chosen the Gap.

I too read the hobbit, loved it. Read the LotR, not so awesome, difficult to follow. Watched the LotR, ******* tits awesome! Watched the Hobbit, yeah not so much as tits awesome. Maybe it was that 48 frames per second stuff, not a big fan.

Perhaps he means that the Hobbit is not a part of the Lord of the Rings universe but that it's the other way around. The Lord of the Rings is the sequel to the Lord of the Rings so it would be the Hobbit universe. Then again the first things Tolkien wrote about the Tolkien universe was written in about 1917 way before the rest and parts of that story made it in the Silmarilion so it would be the Silmarilion universe.

Well, to me it´s kinda the Tolkien-Universe, I mean, most of his works played in the same space, in arda, so Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin, The Curse of Feanor, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings all belong to the same Universe. But I might be arguing about nothing because I´m tired as hell, so just ignore me:D

Yeah, I´m pissed everytime I think about how much more awesome Stuff he could have given us, if he lived longer...as douchebag-ish as it sounds, it´s true. Do you have the Unfinished Tales books? If these stories would have been perfected and finished...goddamnit.

Sorry, if I misunderstanding what you´re saying, I just came home from a party, but does that in any way opposite what I said? Especially because it´s just a selection of notes, short stories and letters, it´s making me sad that those ideas won´t be used in another big story/book/whatever.